June 20, 2016

Meanwhile, Outside...It's Still Getting Warmer

The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for May 2016 was the highest for May in the 137-year period of record, at 0.87°C (1.57°F) above the 20th century average of 14.8°C (58.6°F), besting the previous record set in 2015 by 0.02°C (0.04°F). May 2016 marks the 13th consecutive month a monthly global temperature record has been broken—the longest such streak since global temperature records began in 1880.

Not only that, but this:

The March–May seasonal global temperature was 1.06°C (1.91°F) above the 20th century average of 13.7°C (56.7°F)—the first time the period March–May surpassed the 1°C and the highest temperature departure from average for March–May in the 1880–2016 record, surpassing the previous record set in 2015 by 0.22°C (0.40°F). March–May 2016 also marks the fourth highest three-month departure for any three-month period on record, behind February–April 2016 (+1.16°C / +2.09°F), January–March 2016 (+1.15°C / +2.07°F) and December 2015–February 2016 (+1.12°C / +2.02°F).

But this is all a hoax, right?

Donald Trump, the billionaire bigot and presumptive GOP candidate for President said so on twitter.

Ok, so maybe not a hoax, per se, but also not something human beings have contributed to significantly, right? Our Junior Senator (who's now running for reelection) Pat Toomey voted for that.

But maybe it's still not a fact, right? At least the science is still out on this, right? I mean there hasn't been any change in the last 15 or so years, right? Keith Rothfus, representative from the 12th Congressional district, said so.

You'll note that none of the above positions by any of these Republican candidates for office is, in fact, scientifically accurate.

Each of them is wrong and to each, I'd like ask: Can you explain to me how 97% of the experts in the field can be wrong and each of you is right?